Chapter 42 – Thirty Seconds
The ruined city echoed with the sound of steel.
Azrael and the spearman remained motionless.
Neither attacked.
Neither blinked.
A careless observer would think the battle had stopped.
It hadn’t.
It had simply entered another phase.
The spearman slowly exhaled.
"So that mark..."
He touched the shallow cut on his chest.
"...what does it do?"
Azrael smiled faintly.
"You’ll find out."
The answer wasn’t meant to intimidate.
It was the truth.
The Eclipse Mark wasn’t a direct damage skill.
It was an evolution skill.
The longer a battle lasted...
The stronger its effects became.
The spearman adjusted his stance.
"My name is Kaien."
"Sky Spear World."
Azrael nodded.
"Azrael."
Kaien’s grip tightened.
"I’m not losing here."
Mana surged beneath his feet.
Instead of charging...
He slammed both short spears together.
BOOM!
The weapons fused back into a single six-meter spear.
But this time...
Its shaft separated into dozens of floating segments connected by mana threads.
A flexible spear.
Like a steel serpent.
"Interesting..." Astraeus murmured.
"A Modular Divine Spear."
"Control-type weapon."
Without warning...
The segmented spear shot forward.
Azrael instinctively sidestepped.
Too late.
The spear bent mid-flight.
The tip curved around his defense.
It sliced across his forearm.
A thin line of blood appeared.
Kaien didn’t celebrate.
He continued pressing forward.
The spear wrapped around a collapsed pillar before changing direction again.
Every strike came from a blind angle.
High.
Low.
Behind.
Above.
It wasn’t spear combat anymore.
It was battlefield control.
Azrael retreated across broken rooftops.
Every leap consumed stamina.
Every wingbeat consumed celestial energy.
He mentally calculated.
"At this rate..."
"Three minutes until noticeable fatigue."
Good.
Now the fight had consequences.
Outside the Tower...
Professor Duran leaned forward.
"That boy from Sky Spear World..."
"He’s forcing Azrael to move instead of attack."
Another professor nodded.
"He’s controlling space."
Headmaster Orion smiled.
"Exactly."
"The strongest fighters don’t control their weapons."
"They control where their opponents are allowed to stand."
Kaien suddenly stomped the ground.
The segmented spear pierced three ruined buildings.
Chains of mana connected every segment.
Within seconds...
An entire section of the battlefield became a giant web.
Azrael landed on a rooftop.
The moment his foot touched the tiles—
The web tightened.
The spear erupted upward beneath him.
Too fast.
Azrael crossed Astraeus before his body.
CRASH!
The impact launched him through the roof.
Stone exploded everywhere.
He rolled across the floor of an abandoned cathedral.
Blood trickled from his lip.
His left arm trembled slightly.
Not from injury.
From the force transmitted through Astraeus.
"So that’s your objective."
Kaien slowly walked into the cathedral.
"I don’t need to defeat you."
"I only need to restrict your movement."
Azrael wiped the blood from his mouth.
"And once I’m trapped..."
"The battlefield becomes your weapon."
Kaien smiled.
"You understand quickly."
Both combatants circled each other.
No flashy attacks.
Only tiny adjustments.
Weight distribution.
Distance.
Timing.
A single mistake would decide everything.
Azrael’s Origin Perception expanded.
This time...
He wasn’t observing Kaien.
He was observing the battlefield.
The broken columns.
The collapsed ceiling.
Loose stone.
Wind direction.
Mana flow.
Everything.
Then...
He noticed it.
The segmented spear depended on mana threads.
Invisible.
But not undetectable.
Whenever Kaien redirected the spear...
The threads tightened first.
"Found you."
Kaien attacked again.
The spear serpent lunged.
Azrael didn’t evade.
He sprinted directly toward it.
Outside...
Thousands of students stood up.
"What is he doing?"
"He’ll be skewered!"
Three meters.
Two.
One.
At the last possible moment...
Azrael slid beneath the spear.
The tip missed his face by centimeters.
Instead of attacking Kaien...
Astraeus struck the ground.
Not hard.
Precisely.
CLANG!
The blade severed one invisible mana thread.
Kaien’s pupils contracted.
"What?!"
The spear lost control for a fraction of a second.
Enough.
Azrael exploded forward.
Origin Step.
Not once.
Three consecutive bursts.
The first closed distance.
The second forced Kaien backward.
The third placed Azrael inside the spear’s minimum range.
Kaien abandoned the spear immediately.
He switched to close-quarters combat.
A spinning elbow.
Knee strike.
Palm thrust.
Azrael answered with equally refined movements.
He deflected the elbow using his forearm.
Redirected the knee with his hip.
Countered with a shoulder strike instead of a punch.
Bodies collided.
Not just weapons.
The cathedral echoed with dull impacts.
Neither gave ground.
"Excellent."
Astraeus spoke calmly.
"Now stop thinking about victory."
"Think about rhythm."
Rhythm?
Azrael slowed his breathing.
Every battle possessed a tempo.
Fast.
Slow.
Explosive.
Patient.
Kaien fought in repeating sequences.
Four aggressive attacks.
One reposition.
Repeat.
Again.
Again.
Again.
He wasn’t improvising anymore.
He had unconsciously created a rhythm.
Azrael smiled.
"I see it."
Kaien launched another combination.
One.
Two.
Three.
The fourth thrust never came.
Because Astraeus had already intercepted the exact location where it would appear.
CRACK!
The segmented spear shattered into floating pieces.
Kaien instinctively reached for the fragments.
Too late.
Azrael’s blade stopped against his throat.
Silence.
The battle ended.
Opponent Eliminated
Battle Duration:
29 Seconds
Combat Rating:
97%
Evaluation:
Outstanding
New Combat Analysis Recorded
Kaien laughed bitterly.
"I lost because..."
"...you learned during the fight."
Azrael shook his head.
"No."
"I won because you stopped adapting."
Kaien stared at him for a moment.
Then smiled.
"I hope we meet again in the Academy."
His body dissolved into light.
Reward Acquired
Combat Insight +5%
Sword Intent Stabilized
Eclipse Mark Evolution Progress:
18%
The moment Kaien disappeared...
The Trial Tower trembled violently.
A crimson notification appeared before every remaining participant.
Emergency Event
The Monster Floor has changed.
The Trial Tower has released...
The Predators.
Survive.
At that exact moment...
A deafening roar shook the entire ruined city.
Not one.
Hundreds.
Massive shadows moved between collapsed skyscrapers.
The ground itself quaked under impossibly heavy footsteps.
Marcus, who had been fighting another participant, froze.
"...Please tell me those are students."
Ryan looked toward the distant skyline.
Several towers collapsed as a gigantic creature walked between them.
"...Those..."
"...are definitely not students."
High above the battlefield...
A crack spread across the crimson sky.
From within it descended enormous creatures unlike anything the Academy students had ever seen.
One resembled a lion forged from black crystal.
Another was a serpent with twelve wings.
A third looked like a giant humanoid covered in white armor with six burning eyes.
The System identified them.
Tower Predators Released
Purpose:
Maintain Evolutionary Balance
Threat Level:
SS
Recommendation:
Form Alliances
Headmaster Orion’s expression became serious.
"So..."
"The Tower has judged this generation worthy."
Professor Duran frowned.
"It skipped three entire phases."
"That’s never happened."
Orion nodded.
"No."
"It hasn’t."
His gaze settled on Azrael and Seraphina’s projections.
"The Tower isn’t testing individuals anymore."
"It’s testing whether this generation can survive together."
Far above even the Trial Tower...
The mysterious silver-haired woman quietly watched her children.
For the first time in years...
Concern appeared in her beautiful eyes.
"The Predators..."
"They awakened this early..."
Even she hadn’t expected the Tower to accelerate the trials.
The real danger had finally arrived.